Understanding Navigation & Website Design

When you set up a website you will learn about many facets that make it function optimally, such as web content, layout, website design, animation, navigation, etc. The better it functions, the better results you would have from it.


What Statistics Say About Navigation

Just have a look what the statistics say about the influence the navigation could have on your business:

1. About sixty percent of surfers who come across navigational problems on a website never return to it.

2. You loose more than fifty percent of your potential business because the prospective customer is unable to find the information he/she is seeking.

3. Improvement in navigation can jump your business up by a whooping 80%.

4. About US $25 billion is lost annually just because the navigation on the websites is not suitable to the needs of the prospective customer.


Concerns about Navigation

In the backdrop of the above statistics, you would be seeing navigation with new eyes. Check out what would be the most critical aspects about navigation on your website.

1. Easy access to information – the basic purpose of easy navigation is to provide easy and intuitive access to information. The customer should be able to find what he/she needs within maximum two-three clicks. Anymore than that and it would become cumbersome.

2. The basic men should say it all – people like familiarity and therefore would look for things that they already know and understand. When they visit a website – they would look for pages with names such as 'home', 'about us', 'contact us', 'product info', 'order here', 'demo' and so on. While it is great to be creative, this is not the place to show it. Offering the information in the given format would help the customer a lot of time and effort.

3. Site-map is a must-have – let us say that your style of thinking is not exactly fine tunes to what the customers are looking for. Result – you will look a good portion of the targeted traffic that could have otherwise been converted to business. Solution – have a site map clearly outlining where you kept what so the customer can orient himself/herself with ease.

4. Home page should be accessible – wherever the customer would go he/she should be able to get to the Home Page with one click. This would help the customer to navigate to other pages with ease rather than have to use the 'back button' every time they want to find some other information.

5. Is the contact information visible – just as the 'home page' should always be accessible, so should the 'contact us' button be visible in the right places? To be on the safe side, you would have a horizontal navigation bar reflected on every page for easy access.

When your website is ready, have it test driven and see what is the feedback you get. Is the customer lost or he/she able to find what they want with ease? Are they able to communicate with you when they want? Can they get to the product information in about three clicks? Can they place an order in about three clicks?

If the answer to any of these questions is 'No' you have serious navigational problems which would harm your business.
 

 

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